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3 Posts
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913
September 13th, 2022 07:00
Memory issues
XPS 15 9570
Hi All - I've been having issues lately in terms of my mouse and keyboard lagging a bunch and I believe it's due to low memory. This is what it looks like when I first log on to my computer have restarting but it gets worse through the day as I open more Chrome tabs, etc. Considering the bulk of my memory if Chrome instances (I'm aware the way Chrome operates makes it memory intensive) but doesn't seem to add up that 50% of my memory is gone when starting my computer. I'm going to look into upgrading to 32GM memory but wanted to ask the community if this looks normal and if there's anything you recommend I check to see if there are any potential issues before paying to upgrade to more memory. If I need to provide more info let me know. Thanks all!
mikeyr333
3 Posts
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September 13th, 2022 09:00
Thanks for the reply! The problem isn't necessarily on startup, it's throughout the work day when I have tabs open, my RAM gets down to about 3GB and becomes almost impossible to work. Regarding mouse/keyboard lag, I'm using it wirelessly. I've googled different ways to try fixing lag for both keyboard and mouse but they don't work when my RAM gets that low, it becomes extremely laggy. Is there certain things I should be trying or does 3GB of RAM warrant me upgrading to more RAM considering I run my own business and work fully remote on this computer? Thanks for the help!
filbert
4 Operator
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1.8K Posts
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September 13th, 2022 09:00
I don't see anything unusual. Chrome does use lots of memory, and that increases as you open more tabs. You still have almost half your RAM available.
Unused RAM is wasted RAM. You want the RAM to be used, as that will help your computer's performance. RAM that is sitting there unused doesn't help anything. Windows will manage when it needs to unload items from RAM to accommodate more urgent processes.
For mouse and keyboard lag, I would look at startup items, scheduled tasks and background processes. You may have various items that routinely check for updates and perform routine operations. Chrome tends to be a resource hog, and it can be worse if you have browser toolbars or unnecessary extensions.
When you say "mouse", do you mean external mouse or the onboard touchpad? Touchpad settings have an option to delay responding to inputs to prevent accidental touches when typing from being executed. You could adjust that setting.
EDIT: And, you could try this to free up some resources:
Advanced System Settings | Advanced | Performance | Settings | Visual Effects: select "Adjust for best performance", but enable "Smooth edges of screen fonts".
NJDave
2 Intern
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404 Posts
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September 13th, 2022 22:00
There is a bug in Dell's current video driver for your laptop that can cause memory starvation and the very problem you describe. I experienced the problem when I first powered up my Vostro desktop last October, and it brought the system to its knees once a day or so. (This issue has become my personal hobby-horse on the forum since then. It bugs me that Dell hasn't fixed it yet for many platforms, including yours and mine, and has been zero help in addressing it.) The bug causes Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe) to grow rapidly and potentially consume all of memory. I can't say for sure whether this is what you have going on, since things seem to be generally OK in the image you provided.
The problem is fixed in newer versions of the driver from Intel, which I can vouch for. (I am still running 30.0.101.1191, the first official version that patched the bug.) A caveat: the Intel driver is generic, meaning it hasn't been customized for your specific platform. It's possible that it might not operate 100% flawlessly on your laptop, or break a feature or two. For that reason Intel recommends that generic drivers only be used in a pinch, for testing or to fix problems. I have been problem-free with the Intel driver, but I suspect an XPS laptop may need more driver tweaks than my fairly nondescript desktop system.
You may want to examine the problem more closely before trying the Intel driver. Keep Task Manager running and examine it when things get slow. If Desktop Window Manager's size is multiple 100s of megabytes or larger, there's your problem. Or... you may want to go ahead and try the Intel driver anyway. Use the procedure I outline here to install it, to minimize the chance that Windows Update will try replacing it with the Dell driver. I hope this helps!
mikeyr333
3 Posts
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September 14th, 2022 11:00
Thanks for the reply! After looking at your link it looks like it mentions 6th generation however my processor is Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2208 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s). Is this processor known for the same issues? Again thanks for your help, I might need to have a professional take a look at it or just upgrade RAM.
NJDave
2 Intern
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404 Posts
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September 14th, 2022 13:00
The bug description says it affects generations 6 through 10, which would include your CPU. It's really a problem in the code (I believe), not the CPU: the process allocates memory but then fails to deallocate it. On my gen-10 system, dwm.exe one time expanded to 25GB virtual (with 16GB physical memory). I'm guessing that there's a different code path for the 11th+ gen chipset(s), so they never had the problem.
Let me stress again that this may not be what's going on for you, but I certainly wasn't doing anything very special graphically when I experienced the problem.
NJDave
2 Intern
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404 Posts
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September 14th, 2022 13:00
I would add too that as @filbert said, your image of Task Manager showed NOTHING wrong, including with Desktop Window Manager. The bug I wrote about isn't predictable that I know of, and maybe you're not experiencing it at all.
What storage do you have on your laptop (HDD/SSD/both)? What is your boot drive?